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GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AT WORK PLANNING
TO BREAK UP BEEF TRUST CONSPIRACY
today by a representative of Morris
& Company.
"Meat will jump from this time on
from one cent a week to more as the
increasing deficit becomes apparent,"
he said, gravely.
"It will reach such unprecedented
figures that fifty cents a pound re
tail for choice cuts will be paid. I
expect to see meat go the highest
about Christmas. The present stock
of live Btock will be practically ex
hausted. Eggs, poultry and fish will
be scarce; there will be no vegeta
bles, and the middle and poorer
classes will find their food supply
varying from canned goods to the
poor cuts of meat, liver and the like."
This statement, taken with the
government's discovery of the hid
den millions of pounds of meats, is
enough to convict the -packers, pos
sibly not in court, but certainly so
far as any moral .certainty, is con
cerned. The government agents have dis
covered that two of the biggest
packing firms have been juggling
their books In the fear that the
government might start another in
quiry into their operations.
These two packing houses it has
been found have been regularly
"charging s off" for depreciation a
fund of 20 per cent. This same item
is also covered in their books by an
other one for "new equipment" The
first item really is an unqualified divi
dend. This has been done by the
two packing houses in question for
years. Their annual balances show
ed the public they were making only
a modest 8 or 10 per cent, the whole
report making it appear as if the
packers were only drawing down a
"fair return" on the capital they had
invested. The truth is that the pack
ers have been making three times
aa much profit as their published
statements showed.
The government is preparing to
It became known today for the
first time that agents of the govern
ment have been at work for months
gathering eviednce to be used by the
Department of Justice to break up
the beef trust monopoly of meat and
other food stuffs.
Coincidentally, a great conspiracy
on the part of the packers, which,
if culminated, would have taken
millions from the pockets of the
people, was disclosed.
The proof of that conspiracy lies
in the fact, discovered by agents of
the government who worked for the
big packing companies as laborers,
that the packers today have between
three and five million pounds of meat
and a countless supply of apples, po
tatoes and perishable vegetables,
stored on Ice under two miles of Chi
cago sidewalks.
The greater,part of the vast quan
tity of stored meat has been on ice
for five years, and is now being added
to daily.
The plot was as follows: At the
present time live stock is cheap. The
ranchers of the West would rather
sell their cattle and sheep than pay
the high prices for food stuff conse
quent on the recent unseasonable
weather. ' The packers have been
buying the liev Btock as fast as the
ranchers presented it. But they have
not been putting it on the market.
They have been adding it to their al
ready great store of meat on ice in
the hope that this vast quantity of
meat, which cost them from 10 to
15 cents a pound, could be sold this
winter for from 35 to 50 cents a
pound. Their excuse, to the public,
was going to be that live stock was
scarce. And their excuse would be
essentially true inasmuch as the
western ranchers have been selling
all their live stock early.
The best proof in the world of the
conspiracy of the packers to bopst
prices this coming winter was given